ln Waterford, O'Sullivan's father worked in a meat factory while his mother ran a sweet shop. In 1958, at the age of 11, he moved with his family to Swindon in England in search of a better life. He attended St. Joseph's Comprehensive school in Swindon. While there he developed an interest in both music and amateur boxing. Musically he began with the guitar and progressed to the piano. In the boxing ring he had nearly 50 bouts. Meanwhile his painting and drawing had won him a place at Swindon Art College. He started there in September 1963. His aim was to be a graphic designer. He played drums in his first group The Doodles and left them to join The Prefects while attending Swindon Art College. It was while at college that he met Rick Davies, who was later a member of Supertramp. While at college he began writing songs and sending out demo tapes, alas they were always returned unopened. The first song he remembers writing was Ready Miss Steady.
After finishing college, O'Sullivan moved to London in 1967 to try and further his musical career. He took a part-time job as a salesman at the C & A department store in Oxford Street. Mike Ward who also worked at C & A, had a contract with CBS and Gilbert went with him one day and played his tapes for some of the CBS executives. Gilbert signed a five year publishing contract with CBS which called for one single a year, and released two singles Disappear/You in 1967 and What Can I Do/You in 1968. Gilbert was disappointed that he was not allowed any input into the arranging or production of the singles. Neither single did well. Disillusioned with CBS, O'Sullivan signed with the Major Minor label and released I Wish I Could Cry/Mr. Moody's Garden in 1969.
O'Sullivan came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, John Peel, who gave him a slot on his radio show Top Gear, little of note resulted, and O'Sullivan spent part of 1969 applying to other record labels and management companies. It was at this time that O'Sullivan formulated his 'Bisto Kid' image; grey flannel suit, flat cap, school boy tie, football socks and hobnail boots. In search of a manager he sent some demo tapes to Gordon Mills, an ex-pop singer and himself a songwriter of repute, who had successfully guided the careers of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. Gordon Mills recognised something unique in the young Irishman and signed him for management as well as to a songwriting contract.
O'Sullivan made an irresistible impression with Nothing Rhymed, his first Top 10 hit and an introduction to his witty lyrics and original approach as a singer/songwriter. Signed to MAM Records, the label launched by Gordon Mills, who was also his record producer, great friend and surrogate older brother, O'Sullivan enjoyed four years of major success, incorporating a dozen more hit singles, ten of which reached the UK Top 10, and four Top 5 albums: Himself (1971), Back To Front (1972), I'm A Writer Not A Fighter (1973) and A Stranger In My Own Back Yard (1974).
Both Clair (written about Mills's infant daughter for whom Gilbert occasionally babysat) and Get Down were number one hit singles in Britain, and additionally, Back To Front topped the UK LP chart in 1972, emulating the success of the two million seller Alone Again (Naturally), a six week US chart-topper in 1972. O'Sullivan made his live debut in The National Stadium in Dublin in October of '72. Around this time, the singer jettisoned his so-called "Bisto Kid" image in favour of an endless series of collegiate-styled sweaters embossed with the letter "G". As quickly as O'Sullivan ascended to fame, however, his star began to fall , although singles like Ooh Baby and Happiness Is Me and You continued to chart, they sold increasingly fewer copies, and after 1973 his overseas popularity essentially ceased altogether. At home, he notched his final Top 20 hit with 1975's I Don't Love You But I Think I Like You. After a Greatest Hits album in 1976, and Southpaw in 1977, by which time the hit singles had dried up, disagreements over future direction led to a bitter split between O'Sullivan and Mills, which effectively sidelined the former as a recording artist for five years. The gruelling court case between O'Sullivan and his erstwhile manager, producer, music publisher and record company boss finally gave him control of his own recordings and the copyright in his songs, although it exacted an inevitable toll on his energy and his creativity during it's precedent-setting course.
Gilbert returned to CBS in 1980 and released Off Centre (1980) and Life & Rhymes (1982) but maintained a low profile during much of the 1980s, recharging his batteries and moving to Jersey, where he still lives with his wife and two children. Off Centre provided his 13th UK Top 20 single, What's In A Kiss?, after which legal proceedings monopolised his time. However, he continued writing songs, performing what he called "concepts within four walls" rather than starting back on the road before it was appropriate. He later recalled that the lyrics he wrote during that period were too heavily influenced by his personal emotions - having been extremely close to Mills before their disagreement, he was highly distressed to discover that his dear friend had been guilty of considerable financial greed at Gilbert's expense. Even so, he applied himself to his lonely creativity, working from 9 to 5 each day "just like Goffin & King and people like Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield at the Brill Building in New York used to do", although he later confessed "Really, the words were no good, because my mind was cluttered with all the problems". Lyrics have always been O'Sullivan's most unique facet, reflecting what's going on in his mind, and the strain under which he found himself was hardly conducive to much positive artistic or commercial creativity.
The first release for five years was Frobisher Drive and was only available in Germany. The same album with a slightly different track listing was released in the UK in 1989 under the title In The Key Of G, and included So What, his first chart single in almost a decade. Since the low-key comeback, the pace has increased, with five more albums. Gilbert also made a return to live performances in the early nineties, playing regularly in both Europe and Japan. In 1991, Gilbert was again in court, this time he sued American rapper Biz Markie and won the decision after Markie's unauthorized sample of "Alone Again (Naturally)" on his 1991 album I Need a Haircut. A 1992 single, Tomorrow Today had topped the Japanese charts for nine weeks, and this success led to a tour of Japan in early 1993 with his newly formed backing group, during which he recorded and filmed his first ever live album Tomorrow Today. Gilbert's newfound success in Japan led to the Japanese only release of The Little Album (1992) and Rare Tracks (1992). 1993's critical acclaimed Sounds Of The Loop (Daily Telegraph's Record Of The Week) included a duet with the legendary Peggy Lee on Can't Think Straight and even a solo version of the same song in Japanese. This album was recorded almost entirely at his home in Jersey in the Channel Islands.
By Larry (with a similar track listing to the Japanese released The Little Album) was released in 1994. Larry is a famous English cartoonist, much admired by Gilbert. Larry provided original cartoons for the album sleeve and booklet. Every Song Has It's Play was released the following year and was the soundtrack of the semi-autobiographical stage show that Gilbert had acted and sang in, in 1991. Singer Sowing Machine was released in 1997. The title is a humorous reaction by Gilbert to being constantly referred to as a singer/ songwriter. Irlish was released in 2000 and yielded three singles, Have It, Say Goodbye and Two's Company (Three Is Allowed). The album title Irlish, combination of the words Irish and English, appropriate for someone born in Ireland and raised in England. Gilbert's family was part of this migration. In 2001 The Official Gilbert O'Sullivan Website was launched as well as his own record label ByGum Records.
Gilbert continued to tour and he played a series of concerts in Ireland in 2001 and in the UK in 2002 to promote the Irlish album. A new studio album Piano Foreplay followed in 2003. In 2004 Rhino Handmade Records released a 3 CD anthology in the USA of Gilbert's music entitled Caricature: The Box. It contains 73 tracks which span the years 1967-2001. This is the first in-depth survey of Gilbert's lengthy career. It contains numerous singles and B-sides, tracks from 16 of his albums, and five previously unreleased tracks. A b-side collection entitled The Other Sides of Gilbert O'Sullivan was released in Japan in 2004 and contained many tracks available on CD for the first time. A series of concerts followed in Japan in June 2004 followed by a 20 date European Tour of the UK, Ireland, Norway and Denmark in November and December. In February 2005 a DVD/CD set of the 2004 Japanese show was released in Japan. Gilbert returned to Japan in June 2005 for a series of 13 shows. Gilbert spent the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 recording his next studio album "A Scruff At Heart" which was released in Japan on 25 October 2006.
The Golden Rule
Gilbert O'Sullivan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wouldn't be good if I knew what I could
And I hate to go
But I must you know
Duty calls
Niagara falls
See it go down
And gets up again
At the count of ten
I would like everyone here to repeat after me
Something of which I know nothing about
Namely that which I will tell you
(that which I will tell you)
I'm going to school breaking a rule
I'm going around in a pitiful frown
Cause I didn't pass (came)
Bottom of the class (oh! what a shame)
Teacher was mad
So was me dad
Took off his belt
And without any help
Really hit me hard
Where I'd stuck a card
Thick I may be but a fool I am certainly not
Always remember the golden rule
When in no doubt get a car out
And while you're there how about,
Fetching me one of those pneumatic drills
Boy! I really love the sound that they make
So good for the pains and aches of life in general
Don't be such a miser
At the most a fiver's all you pay
Many's the time
I have wondered about what it is
I want you all to repeat after me
Something I know you know I know
(Something I know you know I know)
I wouldn't behold wouldn't be cold
I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my
Dear old mum and dad
And the fun they had
Early one night
Dad put out the light
Got hold of me mum
Said he wanted a son
And as you can see
The result was me
Somebody told me once money does not grow on trees
Well if that's true then how do you explain
Apples oranges and lemons
Not forgetting melons
The song "The Golden Rule" by Gilbert O'Sullivan is a deeply ironic and self-conscious commentary on the complexities and contradictions of life. O'Sullivan suggests that he wouldn't be happy or successful if he knew exactly what he was doing or what he was supposed to do. His aversion to certainty is perhaps reflective of the wider confusion and uncertainty of the times, and a rejection of the conformist or authoritarian attitudes that often lead people astray. The repetition of contrasting emotions such as gladness and sadness, and good and bad, underscore the intricate and contradictory nature of human emotions and experiences.
The use of paradoxical and absurd imagery in the lyrics also contributes to the song's ironic tone. O'Sullivan's reference to the Niagara Falls and its subsequent rising from the ground at the count of ten, for instance, is intentionally absurd and ironic, and it emphasizes the futility of trying to make sense of a world that is inherently contradictory and unpredictable. Similarly, the reference to the golden rule as a way of resolving uncertainty is also ironic because while it is a well-known adage suggesting that one should treat others as they would like to be treated, it is unclear how it can be applied to the complex and often ambiguous situations we encounter in life.
It is evident that O'Sullivan is trying to evoke a sense of ambiguity, uncertainty, and even confusion in the listeners. The song is warning us not to be too sure of our beliefs or actions, and to be open to the complexities and the contradictions that define human experience.
Line by Line Meaning
I wouldn't be glad wouldn't be sad
My emotions are indifferent and I lack any satisfaction or sorrow.
I wouldn't be good if I knew what I could
I'm unable to achieve success due to the presence of knowledge or information.
And I hate to go
Though I don't want to leave, it is necessary that I do.
Duty calls
Obligations and responsibilities are requiring my attention.
Niagara falls
I witness a natural wonder and powerful event of water cascading downward.
See it go down
Observe as the water flows downward.
As it falls on the ground
The water descends and reaches the earth below.
And gets up again
The water displays a pattern of cycling, rising and falling.
At the count of ten
After a brief period of time, the cycle repeats itself.
I would like everyone here to repeat after me
I request that those present copy and state what I say.
Something of which I know nothing about
The thing I'm about to explain is unfamiliar to me.
Namely that which I will tell you
I'm going to disclose the specific topic I mentioned earlier.
(that which I will tell you)
I'm emphasizing my intention to reveal the unknown topic.
I'm going to school breaking a rule
I am attending school in a manner that violates established regulations.
I'm going around in a pitiful frown
My facial expression shows a melancholy and distressing mood.
Cause I didn't pass (came)
I failed to achieve the necessary academic requirements.
Bottom of the class (oh! what a shame)
I'm in the position of having the lowest academic standing among my classmates, highlighting disappointment.
Teacher was mad
The instructor was incensed.
So was me dad
My father also expressed extreme anger.
Took off his belt
He removed his belt from his clothing.
And without any help
He took action unassisted.
Really hit me hard
He struck me forcefully.
Where I'd stuck a card
He made physical contact where I had positioned a card.
Thick I may be but a fool I am certainly not
I may be unintelligent, but I'm not foolish.
Always remember the golden rule
Recall and abide by the principle of treating others how you want to be treated.
When in no doubt get a car out
In times of uncertainty, using a car can be a helpful solution.
And while you're there how about,
While you're obtaining the transportation, consider the following action as well.
Fetching me one of those pneumatic drills
Retrieve one of the air-powered drills for my usage.
Boy! I really love the sound that they make
I enjoy the unique noise created by the drill.
So good for the pains and aches of life in general
In addition to its sound, the drill is beneficial for general discomfort and discomfort management.
Don't be such a miser
Avoid being overly frugal or greedy.
At the most a fiver's all you pay
You're only required to provide five monetary units, at most.
Many's the time
Numerous instances occurred.
I have wondered about what it is
I've contemplated the identification of something.
I want you all to repeat after me
I request for the audience to repeat what I will express.
Something I know you know I know
I am aware that others know the thing I'm about to repeat.
(Something I know you know I know)
I'm highlighting my cognizance that my audience is also knowledgeable of what I'm saying.
I wouldn't behold wouldn't be cold
I wouldn't see or feel extremely cold temperatures.
I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my
My presence in this place can be attributed to a specific person.
Dear old mum and dad
I owe my existence and upbringing to my dear, aged mother and father.
And the fun they had
My parents succeeded in enjoying and entertaining themselves.
Early one night
At a time that was relatively early in the evening.
Dad put out the light
My father turned off the lighting device in the vicinity.
Got hold of me mum
He physically took his wife in his arms.
Said he wanted a son
He indicated a strong desire to bring forth a male child.
And as you can see
As can be evidenced.
The result was me
I am the obvious end product of their actions.
Somebody told me once money does not grow on trees
I was informed by someone that wealth cannot be spontaneously produced in nature.
Well if that's true then how do you explain
If that's the case, how could you justify the following examples?
Apples oranges and lemons
Fruits that require financial payment to obtain, but utilize the properties of trees.
Not forgetting melons
These fruits also require monetary compensation but grow within a plant source.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: GILBERT O'SULLIVAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Annechien44
A GREAT singer-songwriter. Thanks!!
@balfnet
Very clever witty songwriting, one of the most under-rated performers of last 40 years.
@gareth19771
one of my favorite albums-dont give it way
@todovasalirbien
TE PASASTE !!! Gracias por subir esta song Congratulations !!!
@Vinoshane
This song is very Mc Cartneyish ,does anyone agree? Brilliantly witty.
@mayaadobe
Totally !
@Vinoshane
I just had to reply to you I'm obviously in the same age group as you ,a teen in the seventies and I also wore out all Gilbert's old albums,,,,, Memories
@theScytheofGod
yes...chest hair...alarming...quite...
@mayaadobe
Way too McCartney !